In general, a locking mechanism such as a latch-and-pawl mechanism is built in a door of a vehicle. A pawl restricts the rotation of a latch in a state in which the latch holds a striker of the door. As a result, the door is locked at a predetermined position, for example, a fully-closed position or a fully-opened position. There is known a vehicle door opening/closing device having a function of turning the pawl, which restricts the rotation of the latch, by an electric motor to release the lock of the vehicle door at the predetermined position. In the above-mentioned type of vehicle door opening/closing device, in the case where the electric motor fails when the locking mechanism for locking the door is in a release state in which the lock is released, the locking mechanism maintains the release state. Therefore, the door cannot be locked from then on. Thus, a vehicle door opening/closing device having a cancel function for cancelling the release state when the electric motor fails in the release state is desired.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-31569 discloses a vehicle door opening/closing device having the cancel function. The vehicle door opening/closing device has a cancel-operation bar for interrupting power transmission between the electric motor and the locking mechanism when the electric motor fails in the release state. The cancel-operation bar can be operated by a tool inserted from an operation hole formed through the vehicle door. By the above-mentioned operation, the power transmission between the electric motor and the locking mechanism is interrupted. As a result, the release state is cancelled.
In many cases, however, a vehicle occupant does not know the presence or location of the above-mentioned cancel-operation bar or the operation hole for inserting the tool for operating the cancel-operation bar therein. Therefore, in case of emergency as described above, the occupant needs to call a repairperson or check a vehicle-operation manual. Therefore, the release state cannot be quickly cancelled. Moreover, even when the vehicle occupant knows the presence of the cancel-operation bar and the operation hole described above, the operation bar is required to be operated through the operation hole. Therefore, an operation for cancelling the release state is cumbersome.
Therefore, a vehicle door opening/closing device configured to avoid the above-mentioned disadvantages is desired.